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but I have work for your menalthough it is not hunting. Listen close. There will come, sometime within the next moon, I believe, a messenger. This messenger must not reach Roselynde, but he must not be harmed, either. Nor must he come to know that it is my people who have taken him prisoner. When he is captured, he is to be kept in some shelter in the woods, as if by outlaws." |
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"How will we know this man, lady?" |
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"That I cannot tell you. This means that you will have to take all messengers coming to Roselynde." |
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"Yes, he brought the news that this other messenger would soon followthe one that must be stopped. Any man riding in haste to Roselynde should be taken and stripped. The clothes and every other thing must be brought here to me. I will then tell you whether to release or hold the man. Huntsman, watch carefully. It is a matter of great weight to me and to the new lord. If the messenger comes through, there might be war or a change of overlords in Roselynde." |
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"Be at ease, lady. Not even a worm will come through that you do not know of it." |
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"Your men will be well rewarded for their diligence, all of them, and a special prize to the man who takes the messenger. Remember, he must be held straitly, but nowise harmed." |
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No one would come by land. Now to block the passage by sea. That would not be so easy. If the messenger took passage in a merchantman, she could do nothing except arrange to have him killed when he came ashore. If he came across the narrow sea in a small fishing boat hired for the occasion, as was most common, her fisherfolk might be able to take him. Alinor glanced toward the window embrasure. There would be light enough, she thought. She sent a servant to the stables to order her horse saddled and to send up whoever |
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